


Hold My Hand

by thenthekneehits



Series: Tiny Tumblr Drabbles [6]
Category: Rhett & Link
Genre: Blood, Blood Brothers, Childhood, Friendship, Gen, Handholding, M/M, Slice of Life, Teenagers, blood oath
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-16
Updated: 2015-09-16
Packaged: 2018-04-21 02:03:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 512
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4810649
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thenthekneehits/pseuds/thenthekneehits
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Based on a prompt I received for <a href="http://thenthekneehits.tumblr.com/post/123312521721/send-a-number-or-2-and-a-pairing-and-ill-try">this post</a>:</p>
<p> <em>5. hold my hand + 38. blood + 46. fever</em></p>
            </blockquote>





	Hold My Hand

Link knew that physical contact helped him cope. He ran to his mother for a hug when he was upset as a kid, pride surged in him when his soccer coach tapped him on the shoulder even after a lost game, when he was sick his fever appeared to dissipate as someone stroked his forehead, and tightly grabbing his own kids when they were upset calmed him in return as well.

Physical contact with Rhett had relieved him ever since he was a child — it was a constant source of comfort in his life. The touches consisted mostly of shoulder grabs and hugs, but the thing Link found the most reassuring was Rhett grabbing his hand.

When he was 8 and fell off a short cliff, eyes tearing up despite wanting to be brave, Rhett grabbed onto his hand and Link felt it for the first time. The other boy dragged him up off the ground and Link’s dead weight — his knees too wobbly to stable him — concentrated at the point where they were connected, pressing their palms so tightly together that Link could feel Rhett’s pulse pounding against his own skin.

Link wasn’t scared of blood per se, but it made him anxious and uncomfortable. Sometimes concentrating on the idea of blood pumping inside of him was enough to constrict his throat. The first time he had gotten a blood test and seen the way the blood gushed out and formed a red wave by bouncing off the bottom of the test tube, he did not faint — but he did faint when he got home and relived the experience through memory.

Blood pumping through Rhett, though, that was different. It meant his friend was alive and strong.

When Link had forced himself to look as he cut himself, to see the blood trickling from his palm, a spreading and undulating red line, he felt just as queasy as he’d feared — but as he looked at Rhett and the way the much more heavily applied blade had cut the boy’s palm and stained it red all over, he felt serene. He wanted that strong blood inside himself. When the two grasped hands, tighter and tighter, blood, mostly Rhett’s, trickled down to their wrists. Link grabbed Rhett’s hand back as hard as he could and for the first time he felt both of their bloods pulsing, working hard to block up the wounds and prevent the mixing of blood, but in vain — they were brothers now, just a tiny bit of each other moving inside of both of them.

After that, Link detested the blood inside of his body a little less, and Rhett’s hand meant even more to him. Rhett grabbed his hand when he told him he’d decided to abandon the idea of playing basketball in college and that they were instead going to study together, he grabbed his hand when Link’s grandfather died, and he grabbed his hand when Link was seconds away from getting married, reminding him of the similar promise they had made of staying together for life.

**Author's Note:**

> [the post on tumblr](http://thenthekneehits.tumblr.com/post/123393496491/a-rhett-and-link-drabble-about-5-38-or-46-id)


End file.
